While it is currently known to provide a user interface displayable over one or more display screens of a cellularly communicative device, such as a cellular phone or a personal digital assistant, and while a variety of methods presently exist for providing such a user interface, there remains much room for improvement.
For example, user interfaces are known in which nested menus are provided. These nested menu typically provide multiple user selectable options and one or more user selectable choices within the user selectable options. Additional selections may provided within each of the user selectable options, and this process may continue indefinitely. These nested menus require the user to traverse a specific path to locate a desired function. A wrong path selection requires backing up through the nested menus.
If the user interface includes nested menus and further includes numerous functional groupings and numerous choices within each of those groupings, a user may be required to spend a substantial amount of time and effort searching for a desired selection. Alternatively, a user can memorize the location of all of the selections he or she likes to use or review a reference manual provided with the device to determine the correct locations for particular choices.
It is also known to provide with current cellularly communicative devices a keypad having one or more function keys. These keys can be used for dialing and also to operate various device functions. These keys typically have static operational assignments that are independent of the functions being implemented or the choices being selected by the user of the device. For example, a device may typically include a key which is assigned a “select” or “enter” function. This operational assignment is static in that it exists independently of the particular device function with which the key is being utilized. Thus, regardless of whether a user is entering and storing information, making a telephone call, or accessing a message, the “enter” or “select” key would always have that particular function. Current devices may also have functional key assignments that are static, but usable only within limited device operations.
The use of static key assignments is often annoying to users and inefficient from a system hardware perspective. Static key assignments are annoying because a user typically has to memorize the assigned functions for particular keys (which are typically not labeled) or consult a user manual to accurately determine the assigned function for particular keys. This is particularly annoying if there are large numbers of key assignments for a user to memorize or look up. Static key assignments are also inefficient because, particularly when a device provides a large number of functions, there is required a concomitantly large number of keys to access and implement the functions. Also, if a large number of functions is provided, not only might every key on a typical keypad be required to represent an assigned operation, additional keys might be needed in order to capture all of the operational key assignments required. Alternatively, a user might be required to remember multiple operations for each individual key depending on with which function the key is being used.
It would be desirable to have a multi-level user interface and a method of providing such a user interface in which multiple menu levels are concurrently displayed in a single display screen, and wherein a user is permitted to advance a cursor freely within each of the menu levels to view and select from the functional groupings and the choices available within each particular functional grouping. Additionally, it would be desirable to have such a user interface and a method wherein, upon a selection by the user of one of the plurality of choices within a functional grouping, a dynamic key assignment is displayed for at least one of the keys included in a device keypad, wherein the key assignment is a function of the selected choice. The present invention satisfies this and other needs.